“He owned gas stations or storage facilities, she said.” I was muttering to myself, recalling my conversation with Elizabeth Ayers, working it through. Or an old garage used as a front for a chop shop? Surely Elizabeth Ayers wouldn’t have taken the time to make the distinction. I grasped Dobie’s shoulder. “Spada owns the chop shop. That’s how he connects to Leon. That’s why Darby went there for the car, and Leon supplied them with muscle.” I smiled, nearly giddy inside. So light was my spirit, it almost felt as though I could fly.

“I need the name of that laundromat.”

Dobie shook his head. “I ain’t no snitch.”

“It stays with me. C’mon, Dobie. Don’t stop now.”

Dobie turned it over in his head for a moment, obviously unhappy with the position I was putting him in. I was asking him to go against the code of the streets, to put his safety at risk. It would come down to whether or not he trusted me, whether he knew or not that I’d have his back. It took a moment for him to work it through. “You’re killing me here.” I waited while he took his cap off, fanned his face with it, and then put it back on. It was nervous movement, stalling action. “The Dudz and Sudz, all right? There, I gave it to you. And for the record, this? Us two right here? Never happened, understood?”

I handed Dobie back the fifty. He’d earned it. “Thanks, Dobie. I owe you one.”

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

The Dudz and Sudz was a depressing little hole-in-the-wall on South Homan; it was wedged between a greasy hoagies shop and a nursery school advertising curbside drop-off. The grimy front window plastered with colorful community flyers looked in on three short rows of coin-operated machines that, from across the street, looked like they dated back to Milton Berle’s heyday. For a time, I idled at the curb a few doors down, watching the door as feral-eyed street folk slipped in and out, a few carrying dirty laundry to wash, most with only the clothes they had on. I assumed these were the people who had business dealings in the back. No sign of the Williams brothers, and I wasn’t going to be able to sit in the car long before someone took notice and came to make something out of it. After about ten minutes, I took one last look and drove away.